Thought Picnic: Rest, Sobriety, and Social Sacrifice

Treasuring Rest and Sobriety

There are two things I treasure: the opportunity for rest and keeping my sobriety. I get my sleep whenever I can, except when it is interrupted by obligation or responsibility—work or other necessities.

This means that even when I do not get sufficient rest during the week, which is usually the case due to what is essentially nighttime insomnia, I make up for the shortfall at the weekend. I will have a good lie-in on Saturday, not getting out of bed for most of the morning if I can help it, and sometimes I do give my Sunday to rest over religious commitment.

It is strange that some who are aware of these irregular sleeping patterns still seem totally oblivious to this knowledge in some self-serving way. I suppose that is to be expected.

A Teetotaller With Exceptions

On sobriety, I would consider myself generally a teetotaller, though not to the point of total abstinence. I do like wine. My work experience in a brewery laboratory at the age of 15 quite literally put me off beer, lager, cider, and ale.

It is not for religious belief that I rarely consume alcohol; rather, I have seen how drink loosens the tongue, prompting people to speak more candidly. These are thoughts they once had the wherewithal to keep unspoken. Moments of indiscretion or regrettable garrulousness accommodate the emptying of the bottle into the belly.

One core principle I keep more than ever is never to drink alone and mostly to drink only with meals. This makes drinking a social activity and forestalls the advent of hangovers. I probably drink with the utmost moderation; my experiences with light-headedness have come from prescribed medication rather than from losing control, paying homage to Bacchus.

The Darker Side of Drink

Walking up through the Gay Village near where I live, many a doorway is fouled by vomit. At night, you behold the sight of people barely able to stand on their own two feet, so inebriated to the point of incapacity.

The whole thing is quite scary to me: the thought that a portion of your sensibilities is lost to a void of nothingness, your memory failing to recall any recent event.

Then imagine a sober man keeping the fully drunk company, subjected to the inanities that make you question your own sanity. As much as it is part of socialising and being a social animal, you do you; I do me. Some sacrifices are necessary to make the world go round.

A Google NotebookLM AI Audio Overview Discussion of this blog

Insomnia, Libraries, and Loose Ends

Last Workday Feelings

As yesterday marked my final day at work in 2025, my Out-of-Office notice simply stated that I would be returning in 2026, without specifying a date. It made yesterday feel like the start of a weekend, which it wasn't, but your mind tends to play tricks on you. Then, I’ll be channelling Brian.

That feeling had one benefit: I wasn't too bothered by the nighttime insomnia that affected me more than expected. By the afternoon, I was barely able to concentrate or stay awake. I had to ask to leave early, and it still took another 90 minutes to exit the office.

The Mandatory Training Dilemma

At home, I enjoyed a good lie-in, but I couldn't shake the thought of the mandatory training I had to complete before the year ended. I needed to get it done quickly before genuine holiday feelings set in. However, I must admit, I have commitments to certain social events that prevent me from leaving Manchester soon.

I planned to finish the mandatory training at the central library, which has a large reading room. The downside was that if you don't arrive early, you might not find a socket for your laptop. When I finally found a socket, it wasn't working.

Back to the Office

Soon, I was struggling, but I got halfway through the course before deciding that heading to the office would provide everything I needed to complete my tasks for the year: connectivity, lighting, comfort, familiarity, and ambience.

Colleagues were surprised to see me back, especially since I had already said goodbye most of the day before. Brian guessed I might be the last to leave, as I had arrived just before 3:00 PM. I didn’t pursue that conversation, since he could easily have asked me to leave the office before I finished.

Mission Accomplished

I completed the mandatory training on Agentic AI and scored top marks in the assessment, then did another Health and Safety course that wouldn't be due for another month. I seized the opportunity to do it now, and it was best to get it out of the way.

I can now effectively close for the year. Any activity or study from this point onward can be undertaken at leisure, without the pressure of deadlines. As Brian prognosticated, I am the last one in the office. It also means I won’t have to return until 2026. What a wonderful year it has been.

One is hardly sleeping enough

Another remedy to try

A hot bath with Epsom salts and English mustard comes from the yet unwritten book of Brian' s remedies. He has similar ideas that I have sniffed at which might even work, but I am always a sceptic first until persuaded.

Beyond that, he has recommended chamomile tea; his advice is an earworm. However, when I think of chamomile, I think of a lotion, and the last time I applied it to soothe my skin was during an episode of shingles in June 2009.

Obviously, I need to find something to deal with insomnia; in fact, sleep seems to arrive at any time rather than at designated times for that activity. I use my weekends to catch up on all the sleep I could not get during the week.

Keeping awake doing

While I do not feel the same level of fatigue I had during and for the few months after radiotherapy, there is still a lot of tiredness that hits you in the middle of the day, no matter how much you try to stimulate yourself. With the lack of caffeine, you just depend on nature to stay alert and focused.

Then, in my waking hours deep into the witching hour, I cannot idle about; I just completed five difficult Sudoku puzzles, as if that would tire out my brain. Besides, nocturia is an issue too; whenever I get some sleep, I wake up to pass water, usually four times during the night. I have hit the litre mark a few times this week, and I do not drink as much water as Brian insists I should.

It will get better

I have made a few adjustments, like taking my pills earlier and resisting the urge to drink late into the evening, but I sometimes have a dry mouth, for which swilling cranberry juice might be too great a luxury if you do not swallow after you taste it. I used to drink sparkling water, but I stopped because fizzy drinks do not help urinary function after radiotherapy.

I hate still water, yet I find myself having a glass or two, but never as much as necessary. What I have avoided all along is medically induced sleep; however, the insomnia is a long- term side effect of radiotherapy. I know sleep will eventually come, but I must find ways to prevent this from ruining a productive day.

Insomnia!

My nightly pause from sleep

For distractions, I have to lose,
And the sleep I need to choose,
My medicaments could be to blame,
Or for another’s claim to fame,
I stir and toss alone in bed,
Not one news story left unread,
A nodding doze with utter dread,
Is not that thing I saw long dead?

The watch gives time that runs awry,
I look at time and want to try,
If slumber comes I need to sleep,
But not one eyelid gives a peep,
Then dawn does break upon my wake,
Now wearily my hand doth take,
The Sandman late though for my sake,
What have I done to keep awake?

Photons on the Prostate - XVI

Sleep forsakes thee

It is probably time for an update regarding how I am recuperating following radiotherapy, I am up this early because I was up for most of the night, one side effect that I have not given much consideration is insomnia. I sleep to have to catch sleep whenever I can, but it messes up my day because I cannot concentrate fully on what I need to do.

For this, I should find the lifestyle adjustments that would help me sleep consistently and better in what are supposed to be the normal sleeping hours. I am careful about medically induced sleep, in fact, I have shunned offers of this kind of medication for over 15 years, especially when multiple medications then caused drowsiness, it all adds up and you want to wake up too.

Soon after radiotherapy, I also had Codeine prescribed as part of my pain management, as Codeine metabolises into Morphine, I was all too aware of the addictiveness and issues with withdrawal. I only used Codeine at night and just once a day. As soon as the pain and discomfort had eased, I began to wean myself off Codeine and I did it in a week.

Straining to pee

The bladder and urinary issues are much improved, I am on medication for benign prostate hyperplasia, basically prostate enlargement firstly due to cancer and the resulting inflammation after radiotherapy.

The urinary flow is better, checking with the IPSS Calculator, my IPSS score has fallen to 14, which is still moderate, but it is down from the 19 that was recorded just before I had the clinical consultation for the radiotherapy treatment option in late July. I must accept that these things take time.

I think Incomplete Emptying is not much of an issue, Frequency is moderate, Intermittency is low, Urgency is moderate, I have a Weak Stream, Straining is a feature of me being first as the urinals and the last to leave, I noticed that so many times in Cape Town, Nocturia is about thrice during the night, and I need an improvement in my urinary function.

The last question on the IPSS Calculator – “If you were to spend the rest of your life with your urinary condition just the way it is now, how would you feel about that?” Before I commenced treatment, I was Mostly Satisfied, the feeling now is Mixed, I might need an appointment with Urology to talk through these issues.

As I am running the IPSS Calculator under medication for easing prostate stress on my bladder and urinary tract, I would think without medication, the situation is much worse.

Recuperating in Cape Town

Indeed, at this time of the year, any visit to Cape Town would seem like a holiday. This visit was anything but a holiday, it was the most convenient place for Brian and I to meet, so he could support my recuperation, for I had neither the personal nor domestic care I needed at home, as the side effects of radiotherapy worsened.

It did us a world of good, a lot of rest, the summer weather, walks on the beach, cooked meals, and much loving care and attention. We ventured a couple of social events but none of the typical Capetonian holiday stuff like venturing out to wine estates or tourist traps.

I drink cranberry juice, hardly any carbonated drinks, I have eschewed alcohol, I probably have had three glasses of wine in three months and for tea, I have stuck to decaffeinated tea rather than decaffeinated coffee until I am happier with the urinary situation.

Singing for the crows

One lasting side effect is my voice, it sometimes gains strength and timbre, but I do not know if I would totally regain my original voice, or it would settle somewhere near what it was. It sounds tired and slightly feminine, there might be some underlying fatigue to it brought on by insomnia too, possibly a topic for discussion at my next medical appointment.

In all, I can report there is considerable progress, I do tire easily, but I also will myself to do things and find the capacity to get things done. That is a good update.

Reference

MedScape: International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS) Calculator

Photons on the Prostate - V

Tolerance helps through

My radiotherapy session yesterday was the latest in time for all visits to The Christie Hospital at 18h15, it represented the longest time between the weekday treatments as there are no weekend sessions. I was first in on Thursday morning at 08h00, the receptionists and staff had not arrived when I got to the hospital for my appointment.

With 7 done, we are over a third of the way through it and I have a better understanding of what to expect. I am tolerating radiotherapy well, but fatigue is a downer, much as I want to be active the body is sending signals I cannot ignore, and tiredness gets respite with sleep at irregular times leading to nocturnal insomnia where you wake up in the middle of the night and even though you are tired, you cannot sleep.

The side effect is more related to fatigue than insomnia being a documented side effect of radiotherapy when it applies to the prostate. It royally screws up the day that you need to become flexible about how you are productive.

Take each day

I would do whatever I can when my energy levels are up, regardless of the time of the day, and take the rest as needed when the fatigue sets in.

The waiting rooms during the evening sessions are quite busy and this time, as I was waiting to be called into my usual suite, I was reassigned to another suite where I was immediately called in for my radiotherapy treatment.

One other thing I have noticed is my ambulatory performance is quite low compared to my usual walking speed, it reminds me of the months of recuperation after chemotherapy in 2010, I just took my time putting one foot in front of the other knowing I would eventually get to my destination. The distance to the hospital on my good walking days I could do in 60 to 70 minutes. It is not something I have contemplated currently.

The smart thing now is prioritising the responsiveness to treatment over other situations and variables, and making the best of the weekend breaks on the treatment plan.

Blog - Photons on the Prostate - VI

Blog - Photons on the Prostate - IV

Blog - Men's things

Sleepless in prose

What questions at crazy times

Many a night is spent sleepless,
Even at times, one is quite listless,
As midnight gains hour on hour,
The brain seeks stuff to scan and scour,
What could I do at this strange hour?

Then inspired by what I just read,
For quite a while not woven a thread,
Of words and thoughts within the mind,
To test a skill of wit, prose, and kind,
What is it that we might find?

In a bed, I sleep without that warmth,
Of arms that wrap around like cloth,
Those hands that soothe a good back rub,
Or when we shower, I get a scrub,
What in the morn is in my hot teacup?

My daydreams are walked all by the sea,
With winds and sprays that bring me glee,
I know my dreams prepare a way,
A foretaste of true living into the day,
What they ask makes them happy and gay? 

Deep inside the reality of period insomnia

Bodyform | #periodsomnia

Menses on television

My lack of education or knowledge about these matters would soon be evident even as I dumped the change I collected after a purchase at a pharmacy in Cape Town into a collection can for the support of girls who might need such materials as they reach puberty.

Have we not been regaled with adverts of feminine products short of demonstrating how they can be applied or utilised? I have been distracted by much and learnt a few life lessons from the stories of the women asked to share the sense of freedom and autonomy gained when using these personal hygiene products.

Music to my distraction

Recently, it was a Bodyform advert with the background music I could remember from a distant past but could not place it. This apart from the fact that what I thought was skatting or scatting, which is to sing without words, was a mondegreen as I misheard and never really knew the words of the song.

My situation was not helped because the voiceover was much louder than the music and hence nigh on impossible to get a music identifier app to distinguish the different sounds and produce a result. My searches for ‘Bodyform advert 2022’ which would have worked for many other adverts failed to yield the result I was seeking.

That was until I took a phrase out of the advert and modified my search accordingly to ‘Sleep fearless Bodyform advert 2022’. Then I got a hit, with the music loud enough to run by Soundhound, my favourite music discovery app and then my search for information that had been on for just about a month was over.

Deep down inside

Now, the song by Little Louie Vega, released in 1993 as I remember from my nightclubbing youth, has the genius of repetition in the genre of house music that the other words in the lyrics of the song might well be expended with.

Deep deep down inside
Deep deep deep inside

This is punctuated somewhere with ‘All we need is love’, said four times and we are back to Deep Inside.

Towelling insomnia

Now, hear me out, I thought Bodyform was marketing tampons rather than sanitary towels, panty liners, and sanitary towels like I would know the distinct differences or benefits of any, but hey!

Then I wondered, how the advert agency, on receiving the commission to create an advertisement thought Deep Inside was the appropriate encouragement to apply these products.

However, there is a very important point being made in this Bodyform advert that I should not ignore for my levity, Period or Menstrual Insomnia, an issue that is probably taboo but needs to be discussed as I was until now unaware of it. Even with nature, there is discomfort, inconvenience, and distress. [Sleep Foundation: PMS and Insomnia]

I conclude by letting it all tail off here before I say something I cannot take back.

Hardrive ‎– Deep Inside [1993]

Of dreams and battles in other tongues

I dream active dreams

Vivid dreams find a landscape in my sleep, and I cannot account for when they occur apart from when there is too much fat in my food close to when I take my pills, that the interaction between the chemicals allows for that side effect.

At other times, it is a busy day that leaves me so utterly exhausted, once I fall asleep, there is a kind of incapacitation that helps my relaxation, but I get any sleep I can whenever I can, for there is a tendency to insomnia that I try to arrest before it takes hold.

One apparent sleep disorder I have endured is parasomnia, where undesirable and physical events occur in my sleep that I am punching out or kicking out, at other times, I am talking in my sleep and rarely in typical conversation but in serious confrontation with people or situations that occasion possible or imminent harm.

Winning in all fights

From deep within my psyche, I find myself engaged in some sort of spiritual warfare, speaking out against assailants to the scheme of the Acts of Apostles. Fundamentally, I am a man of intense spiritual persuasion and belief that some realms in which I dwell are multidimensional and needing of presence in attention, observation, assertion, understanding, engagement, and conflict where you should triumph.

One other peculiarity is whilst English is my mother tongue and Yoruba is a learned language, my dream language is usually strongly Yoruba than English, I seem to be more assertive and sure of myself and what I determine to do in that language with a lot more clarity and forcefulness. I marvel at the power of dreams and what many victories I have been conferred with when met with an attack.

Dreamscape: Parasomnia to the rescue

A low form of sleep

Brian is probably the most aware of episodes of parasomnia demonstrated in REM (Rapid Eye Movement) Sleep Behaviour Disorder that I have exhibited over time when I have vocalised, acted out or even kicked him violently in bed. My dreams can be quite vivid and the fact that during REM Sleep my muscles are not relaxed and temporarily paralysed could probably be related to my medication, but I have for a lifetime suffered a spectrum of parasomnia short of somnambulism. [Sleep Foundation: REM Sleep Behaviour Disorder]

After work, I took a nap and had classical music playing in the background, my phone rang waking me up, but I just turned over not to excite myself too much out of the slumber that had seemed to set in. Soon I was enraptured in the throes of dreamland.

Into dreamhood

There is a characteristic of my dreams that appears to link into episodes eked out of long-held memories probably from other dreams that makes certain encounters seem like a continuing story. I was walking up an exposed corridor with an overhanging roof when I noticed a lady I knew in some sort of distress, two men on either side of her appearing to threaten her, but since they were outside, I felt if anything happened, I could call up a crowd and the police on them.

One of the men happened to be Boris Johnson, and that might have been inspired by news of when he with a friend arranged to have a journalist beaten up. The stuff of dreams draws from inexhaustible material. [The Guardian: A couple of black eyes]

Soon, another man I did not recognise walked up and they now took the lady into a room. As they did that, I called out to her, by name and asked if everything was Okay, whilst she said she was, that is not what I heard in her voice, they were going to rough her up and I was reaching for my phone to call the police.

Acting out the dream

I could hear a bit of thumping in the room, and I suspect from what I overheard in the snatches of conversation in that room, they wanted to know how much I knew about them. I guess they were about to include me in their nefarious activity when that man I did not know came out and walked towards me, because I was not leaving until I was sure she was fine.

As he approached me, I could hear myself say in a loud voice, “Do you want to know who I am?” as I woke up out of the dream. Sometimes, this happens as a safety reflect preventing an escalation or a deterioration leading to harm for myself and stress on my mental and nervous system. I probably need to visit a sleep clinic to study the phenomenon better.

However, it was another bout of parasomnia and my sleep was over with me thinking if the dream had continued, as there were many people around, I was about to shout out to them. “Call the police on these thugs.” It is likely, that dream might continue in another episode of Dreamscape, the vivid dreams of I and the parasomnia that defines them.

In the shadow of Table Mountain

Anyone out there?

In the shelter of the Table Mountain, there is a stillness and eerie silence that greets my ears, the cacophony hours ago, at street level, some two floors below has given way to snatches of sounds travelling distances unknown, probably of someone singing to themselves.

The insomnia phase I am in has been brought on by the slumber that caught me away on the couch soon after a sumptuous Christmas dinner. The many nights of unsleep caught up in an afternoon, an evening and a night of sometimes absented wakefulness that only my tracker can plot into any perceptible coherence.

Looking out of my window, it is only a quarter past one, and at the junction are two public safety personnel in their green and yellow uniforms, that it matters is strange because a major police station is hardly 6 blocks down, where another of the personnel appears to be walking up the street.

Someone out there

You might even hear a baby cry or a car drive past, we are supposed to be under a curfew, whoever it is must be on some essential or emergency activity. It is quite peaceful on occasion to just switch off even primary and local sources of sound and listen, though it would be nigh on impossible for me to sleep without the radio on.

Someone then punctures the quietude with the hoot of the car horn, you can only wonder why if the roads are free amongst the many other reasons I should not exercise myself about. I look out again, I am in both a modern city with all streetlights working and a place of inequalities, a man without the comforts I enjoy sits on the pavement pondering a homeless world.

Stop wishing others sweet dreams as they go to sleep

Sleeping duties

Knowledge can be troublesome at times and nowhere has this been that interesting than getting an understanding of my sleeping patterns over the last week. My Honor Band 5 tracker has been plotting my daily sleep cycle from wakefulness to deep sleep, indicating I have not been getting enough deep sleep and the continuity of my deep sleep is too below the expected levels.

I seem to have lots of REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep, which apparently is the lightest form of sleep and the region in which you dream and remember the dreams. Who would have thought wishing someone sweet dreams as they were going to bed was hardly wishing they would have a restful night?

Then, I do appear to have an above range period of light sleep, I am putting in the hours though the graphical representation of REM Sleep to Light Sleep to Deep Sleep with the fluctuations and durations can be the stuff of serious mathematical computations yet to find some formulaic expression.

Becoming better friends

I have decided not to bother too much about it, I am getting some good hours. Except if I go to a professional sleep clinic for clinical and scientific observation, I probably will not learn much more about how to benefit from sleep.

Then, it is probably the long-term side effects of pills I have been on for over a decade. The somewhat imposed decision to change them did not work that well with me for after 7 weeks, I had had enough of being a guinea pig two years ago that I asked to be put back on my old drug regimen. Besides, I have shied away from sleep medication for as long as I can remember, I would get as much sleep as nature will allow.

Some modifications to diet, the time I take my sleep and when I take my pills, might help. I have not murdered sleep; I just need to find out how we can be better than just friends.

That stoned feeling - II

Felt like getting stoned

When the decision was made to switch my pills in May 2010 after 8 months of the irregular bowel movements and unexplained diarrhoea, I was promised a better quality of life along with the reduction of pills from 3 to one combination pill.

However, I was advised that I would have the side effects of getting stoned along with vivid dreams with the prospect of insomnia. Living in Amsterdam, everyone would have thought I knew what getting stoned was. For all the troubled adolescence I had that exasperated my parents, I never took to drinks or drugs, I got religion instead and with that stopped smoking at 18 having smoked for 4 years.

Now, I had taken a puff or two of a spliff and indeed inhaled, whatever effect it was supposed to have I never arrived there. My on-off partner who had come to stay with me for the first few months after I left hospital was in every way a stoner, he bought ready-rolled spliffs and smoked the living room to a cloud, playing with himself before going to bed in the main bedroom.

Google, how do you feel stoned?

Like I did years before when I had a sherry, a port and a glass of wine before getting sick into the sink later that night, I had to go online to understand what being drunk was, what a hangover was, now, what the feeling of being stoned was. I thought, having an idea of what it was would help me through the experience. Read it in the blog below.

Blog - That stoned feeling

It was a light-headed feeling almost like I was being starved of blood to my head, you feel faint though nowhere near fainting. It informed the reason why I took my pills late, close to bedtime, so the stoned feeling cleaved unnoticeably into my sleep. There are times I have been up and about when that stoned feeling begins, usually around 90 minutes after taking the pills.

I have over time been able to work through it without the need to settle down somewhere to recover. It can take up to 2 hours for it to clear up. If you were not that observant, you won’t even notice I was slightly impeded by the stoned feeling, my wits very much with me.

That stoned feeling was stronger last night

Strangely, last night, whilst I was writing my last blog, I felt the stoned feeling in a more accentuated way than usual, I could not explain why. I pressed on with completing my blog and was quite wide-awake into the early hours before I got some needed sleep. I cannot remember having any vivid dreams, I just wonder if there is a switch somewhere that got flicked. We’ll see what this night brings without getting too anxious about it.

There was an attempt to switch my pills in late 2018 which failed woefully, every possible side effect of inconvenience and negatively impacting my quality of life materialised. I presented an over 40-page diary of my experience to make the case for being returned to my previous regimen than having me being put on another guinea pig enterprise. We switched to a generic version in October, they seem to be just okay.

Some might seek the exhilaration of being stoned, even with experience, I cannot convince myself I like the feeling, one bit.

Chasing the forty winks away

I’m scared to slumber,
Fading in a moon’s penumbra,
If I care to remember,
The months since December.

For my mind to keep,
And recover by sleep,
All my counting of sheep,
Never got too deep.

In the dawning of Friday,
The clock that made me sway,
Dressed and on my way,
To work to make some pay.

Heavy my eyelids weigh,
Down over my eyes to stay,
Hard to nap as you now may,
For a bed on which to lay.

But for another few hours to go,
What things to keep blood aflow,
My face to have a glow,
Let’s be done it’s time to go.

Out of a tired brain,
A hopper of words like grain,
In order for prose to gain,
A reading free from pain.

Berlin: The price tag misery in Germany

A drift from purpose

Being exhausted from a number of unexplainable things resulting in lacking focus and losing my drive that I was not being as productive as I would have liked, I had to get away.

It is quite possible that having not yet taken an annual holiday in over a year, I have become lethargic and somewhat listless, the concern of what to do for my 50^th birthday in December is beginning to weigh on my mind too.

At this and I planned at the very last minute a weekend in Berlin where it is very possible all I will do is sleep in my hotel and get some rest whilst the world moves on, invariably, this will not help and it adds to my utter discomfiture.

No sleep for the determined

Yet, I still have some of that sharpness in my rather tired head, I have only just caught up on the sleep I lost for a whole night. Occupied by thoughts, I decided to fix my trusty Toshiba NB100 notebook. It runs an Intel Atom CPU and though it is specified to take just 1GB of RAM, at the point of sale, the shop manager replaced it with a 2GB module and it worked and that at no extra cost.

This was about 8 years ago, then it had Microsoft Windows XP which I upgraded to Microsoft Windows 7 and a few months ago I installed the Microsoft Windows 10 Preview which worked for a few days but the WiFi dongle that worked in the earlier version of Microsoft Windows conked out when I tried to update the drivers in Microsoft Windows 10 and with it an inability to boot up.

Nothing I did could fix the problem, even wiping the system and starting from scratch, so insomnia gave me the opportunity to start with the installation of Microsoft Windows 8.1 Professional and the Microsoft Office 2013 Professional, it was slow, especially the Click-to-run aspect that took almost a day.

Not what it says on the price tag

Anyway, I arrived in Berlin and decided to get a German SIM card for my dual-SIM phone, I walked into the electronics shop, asked for a SIM card and was presented with one that gave me a number of call minutes, a Short Message Service (SMS) texts and 1GB of data.

The SIM envelope had €9.90 printed on it, but I was being charged €19.95, at least that was what was on the till. So, I asked then to explain how they arrived at €19.95, the shopkeeper said he knows, but he could not show me how the figures add up.

I guess this is an interesting difference I have found between the United Kingdom and German, in the former, the price tag attached to an item takes precedent, in the latter, the price displayed at the till takes precedent. I was having none of it.

I got a better deal

For instance, so what happens if you go shopping based on the price tags or on an advertised price and find that at the till you are paying more than what the price tags indicated? The whole reason for price tags is obviated if the price of goods you want to purchase remains a mystery. I can understand if you need to barter, but a shop that uses price tags on goods must always match that price with what eventually gets displayed at the till.

In my view, it was a raw deal, and maybe in jest or seriousness, the shop manager said I will remember them after our exchange and dispute, indeed, I will remember them for failing to prove to me how they came to the price they wanted to charge me, besides, as I told them, I will probably get a better deal in town.

I did, for the same price, I got 5GB data, but the Germans desperately need a Trade Descriptions Act something that takes the mystery of pricing away from the price tag being some guidance that might only be proven at the till where you are probably embarrassed to pay up, because that is the norm – one I will never subscribe to.